Hand back my apprentice [D4, ME]

[Xyll Vanth]

Xyll was not in the best of moods, as one might imagine. Going to see the woman who was the cause of last night's misfortune was by no means a pleasant prospect. But at least she had given a good showing herself. That *should* prevent Acina from completely seizing the advantage. And her taking Mira had meant she was obviously interested in speaking with Xyll again; away from public eyes where appearances were everything.

Still, she was not pleased on the trip to her estate. Nor when she made her presence known to whatever individuals or systems were meant to keep others out.

[Dapper Dog]

Acina-estate-Ajunta.jpg (79.32 KiB) Viewed 10068 times

The estate, was less an estate and more a cabin on the edge of Ajunta, it was remote and there was no official road to it but a dirt trail that winds through frosty green forests and leads to the estate.

On the porch was Darth Acina nursing a cup of kaff and a droid was seen through a window inside but it was unclear what the sleek droid was doing.

[Xyll Vanth]

She had her suspicions about the droid, but that was a concern for later. For now, her attention was on Acina. The trail up to the cabin had been unusual to her mind... the cabin itself even more so. Surprise had, to some extent, replaced her simmering anger.

"This is not what I had been expecting," she said, as she came close enough to be within conversational distance of the Darth.

[Darth Acina]

“I am not sure what you were expecting then, but you found it easy enough,” she replied

“Kaff?”

[Xyll Vanth]

There was the slight prospect of it being poisoned, of course. But that would be overly paranoid.

"Also, not expected." she considered it for a moment. "Very well."

[Darth Acina]

She stood and entered her home leaving the door open, it was rustic and fairly lacking in the modern amenities. A wood fire stove worked to keep the kaff, she added a small log to it’s appetite. The droid watched the visitor with her optical sensors as she cleaned a weapon. A rifle of sorts.

Her apprentice sat on a couch with a bandage around her missing hand and an angry if defeated look on her bruised face.

“I have not tortured her, if you are considering that and nor have I poisoned the kaff,” she said offering a cup.

“There should always be some level of civility between enemies, or else we are no more than mere beasts.”

[Xyll Vanth]

She followed Acina inside and looked about; eyes naturally falling on her apprentice with a look of disappointment before turning to the Darth again.

"You were never my enemy," she said. "You merely reacted poolry to what was a simple search for information. Though I admit, the fact that you won the day aggrieves me."

You would've been nothing before me, once.

"Tell me," she said, casting a glance at her apprentice again, "how exactly did she fail me?"

[Darth Acina]

“By following your orders to spy on me. If she had come to me openly I would have been glad to listen to such a proposal, instead she tried deception, it seemed to work until it did not,” Acina replied after a sip of kaff.

“I abhor spies.”

[Xyll Vanth]

"Espionage implies a different game, my dear." She tried the kaff herself.

"The questions I had sent her to ask you were... of a sensitive, and personal, nature. I thought it prudent to have a degree of separation between yourself and their real source should you react with greater interest than I'd have been comfortable with. And my apprentice needed either to overcome the challenge of fooling a Darth, or learn from failure."

There was another sip.

"It seems I miscalculated, not knowing just how much you... abhor 'spies'."

[Darth Acina]

“I also abhor pithy remarks and patronizing attitudes as well, for future reference. You can either cut the game or take your apprentice and go, I don’t have time to measure genitals with a fellow Sith it’s a stupid game that no one wins,” she said honestly.

[Xyll Vanth]

"Very well," she said.

Now where's the fun in *that*?

"Then let us speak plainly. I wanted to ask you questions about a vision I had. I had also hoped you might have certain insights on a Jedi ritual, and possible ways to reverse it. I have other avenues I might approach that problem through, but I thought it couldn't hurt to get as many perspectives as possible."

[Darth Acina]

"Well you have my attention, ask?" She asked.

[Xyll Vanth]

"First, the vision on Korriban. It was of... a crimson skinned girl, a dagger in a three fingered hand. I had hoped perhaps that description might mean something to you. And second, that to which the vision related. The jedi ritual. It is called a Wall of Light. Are you familiar with it? They used such a ritual a number of times, with varying degrees of success, during what is now known as the Great Sith War."

[Darth Acina]

“That would be what the sith looked like before they interbreed with the Dark Jedi, significance… could be anything,” she said casually.

“Familiar, but not something I have studied in depth; it does not see much if any use,” she replied to the question of the Wall of Light.

[Xyll Vanth]

The spirit of old Korriban then, perhaps. A minor curiosity, but not what she was really interested in.

"Indeed, it doesn't. Not anymore. I was told there was one who had reversed the effects. One close to Revan. And I was told that one sith... now dead... might know more about how she'd accomplished this. Darth Traya. You are a noted historian... I'm sure you can see why I thought you might have insights that could be of use here."

[Darth Acina]

“Darth Traya wasn’t just any Sith, she was one of the Triumvirate… successors of Darth Revan’s legacy of a sorts,” she replied.

“She died long ago on Malachor V I believe… killed by one the history books refer to as as the Exile, it is uncertain if this person was Jedi or Sith.”

[Xyll Vanth]

"It is this Exile's accomplishment in restoring her connection to the Force that I am, most, interested in. I'm unfamiliar with Malachor, however. Is it far? I suppose trying to find the site where she was killed would require profound luck, even more so should her spirit linger."

[Darth Acina]

“It’s a journey to Malachor V.”

She put her kaff down and added, “The Exile… there is not much about her now that I think about it.”

[Xyll Vanth]

"Is there something about Malachor that should preclude a journey there? If it were not too far, and it is possible, I might consider it if I had anything more to go on. And the exile? Now that you think about it? Is it strange for there to be little on them?"

[Darth Acina]

"More strange that there is so little data on her on the Imperial archives... at least from my recollection," she said.